When I was first married, my husband and I were blessed with the opportunity to live and work in Paris. At the corner of Boulevard Saint-Germain and Rue de Bellechasse on the Left Bank was our neighborhood boulangerie. It was a common occurrence to visit the family-run bakery for your
Continue ReadingTo celebrate the arrival of Summer, I invited Guinevere Milliner, my new French friend, chef, and the owner of the French market, Little Gourmand, to come make some gypsy mischief with me in the kitchen! Guinevere and I decided to make a quintessential French luncheon! I have always wanted to
Continue ReadingI read cookbooks like novels. A good cookbook takes you on a magic carpet ride into someone else's kitchen "chapel," invites you to peek into their spice cabinets, and eavesdrop on intimate conversations that ensue around their tables. There are stacks of cookbooks scattered all over my kitchen--French, Italian, Vegetarian,
Continue ReadingMost Sundays afternoons you'll find me barefoot in the kitchen. I consider it a spiritual discipline. There is a mindfulness achieved while chopping carrots, mashing bananas, grinding cashews for butter, and melting coconut oil that I often miss in the hustle and bustle of the week. I slow down. I allow
Continue ReadingWe are a bacon on Saturday morning family! Although I am not a huge meat eater, there is also nothing more satisfying than a BLT&A (Bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado sandwich!) But if you are really a porcine connoisseur you must add prosciutto to your repertoire. Talk about an A-ha moment!
Continue ReadingIs it true what they say----A brutal Winter promises a beautiful Spring? Please say it is true! But there are some benefits to courting Old Man Winter. Warm Fires, hot chocolate, and a big pot of chili! This recipe is healthy, easy to make, and will feed legions. I hope
Continue ReadingI hope every Italian grandmother forgives me for this short-cut of a recipe! But with five kids and a bustling life sometimes I haven't the luxury to stand over the stovetop, tied into my apron, wooden spoon in hand, admiring the perfect tomato sauce bubbling away! This is one of my
Continue ReadingThis is a go to recipe at the Mason house. Muffin was the second word after mama that came out of my son Percy's mouth! I buy the bananas on Sunday and they sit in the window until "mashing" the following Saturday morning. The more black and bruised the better.
Continue ReadingIf you are looking for a new cookbook for your collection or a cool gift for a friend, check out Bless This Table. It's a collection of celebrity family recipes and stories curated by Teri Diamond and Jaymes Foster. The book was inspired by the tradition of sitting around the
Continue ReadingImagine two brothers, related not by blood, but both with claims of lineage to the biblical Patriarch, Abraham. One day they happen to meet in the kitchen of a poplar bakery in London. It was destiny! They both had a passion for cumin, the taste of a Jerusalem artichoke, and
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